Confirming the Gospel

This morning my heart is stirred around a theme that has been on my heart for years, that of seeing miracles and healing as a regular expression and experience of God's Kingdom, present here on earth, embodied in the church.  I have been looking at the following verses form John's Gospel for many years - and felt my heart drawn back here again this morning.  Here are the verses - John 14:9-14 NIV:

[9] "Jesus answered: “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? [10] Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. [13] And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

This is such a rubber-meets-the-road kind of verse.  This is effectively the core of Jesus' teaching and ministry described in a few sentences.  Jesus came to reveal the Father.  He did this by saying what the Father told Him to say and doing what the Father told Him to do.   He was representing the Father to us, as His Son, and it was the authority and power, presented in the completed miracles that testified to His identity and confirmed His message.  He was proclaiming and demonstrated His Father's reign and rule, the Kingdom of God.  He released this same ministry unto His followers, and here Jesus reiterates that ministry invitation and promise.

Mark captured the importance of these verses in his final few verses of His Gospel, as follows - Mark 16:15-20 NIV:

[15] "He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. [16] Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18] they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” [19] After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. [20] Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."


Luke wrote the a very thing in His book recording the Acts of the Apostles as follows - Acts 14:1-3 NIV:

[1]At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. [2] But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. [3] So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.


Paul in His letter to church in Corinth, described a quite similar minsitry - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NIV:

[1] "And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. [2] For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. [3] I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. [4] My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, [5] so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."


Thus, this morning, I am once again stirred to ask the Lord, to release in our midsts, into our churches, an awareness, authority and power to proclaim the Gospel, proclaim the Kingdom and see it confirmed through the signs and wonders that worked through the power of the Holy Spirit!  Yes, Lord!  Come!

Amen!